Potted film reviews by Gary Anthony Cross

June 20, 2016

The Invasion (2007)

Washington psychiatrist Nicole Kidman begins to notice changes in her clients which leads her to believe that the human race is being overrun by an alien intelligence.

In yet another remake (of a remake) of a classic, The Invasion is guilty of the usual Hollywood crime of putting flash above substance because a noticably dumbed-down script. Although the film looks good, the director is in far too much of a hurry to cut to the chase – quite literally – at the expense of tension or the build up of suspense, and there is far too much pseudo science and not enough invention in its approach to the concept. I’m no fan of Nicole Kidman, but in The Invasion she acquits herself adequately – although my cynical side would say that she’s had a lot of practice acting like an emotionless drone. But she’s still not a strong enough presence to carry a film on her own in the way she is expected to here, as Daniel Craig’s character is criminally underused. The concept of replica human beings grown from pods is also far more horrific than people just getting a slime makeover in their sleep, and the way the originals allowed the audience to ponder the idea of a peaceful existence at the expense of individuality and free will is completely dispensed with, to be replaced with the dim-witted “we’re evil aliens and we’re going to kill your babies” plot we have here.

So all we’re left with is a bog-standard chase thriller and taken as that it is efficiently handled, but even that much is scuppered by one of the most anti-climactic endings I have ever had the misfortune to witness. On the whole, The Invasion is a typical Hollywood remake.